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Justice. Only Justice Shall Thou Pursue

Monday, May 16, 2011

Israel Dealing With the Aftermath of the Palestinian Incursions

Israel has filed a protest with the United Nations Security Council over yesterday's border incursion/invasion by Palestinian protesters in the hopes of overwhelming Israel's security and causing a major headache for Israel. The protesters succeeded in getting Israel to open fire on the protesters, and nearly a dozen were killed while trying to infiltrate Israel's sovereign borders, particularly along the Syrian and Lebanese borders.

These were not spontaneous protests, but organized with the intention of bringing the focus back on Israel, rather than the odious regimes that encircle Israel. Leave it to the UN Secretary General to ignore the fact that the Syrian regime is busy killing its own and used the Israeli Independence Day to export the violence to Israel:

"The secretary-general is deeply concerned that a significant number of people have been killed or injured," Ban's office said in a statement. "He calls on all concerned to show restraint and refrain from provocations so as to prevent escalation of tensions and ensure civilians are not killed or injured.”

Noting that the border breach originated from the Syrian side, Ban said he was “acutely conscious of the unsustainable status quo in the Arab-Israeli conflict, which is only thrown into sharper relief by the profound political changes now under way in the region.”

He added that there is an "urgent need for a just, lasting and comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace."

There can be no peace with Israel when Israel's enemies refuse to accept Israel's very existence. That's what yesterday's protests were about; they weren't demanding a 2-state solution whatsoever. The protests are meant to spur a change to the status quo as perceived by the Arab regimes- eliminate Israel and the problems and turmoil in the region disappears.

The problem isn't Israel, but with the regimes that spread this nonsense with frightening regularity. The regimes that spread turmoil, unrest, and export terror are those like Syria and Iran, whose proxies in Hamas and Hizbullah cause violence, upset delicate political compromises in places like Lebanon. Then there are regimes that are autocratic and whose regimes are built not on democratic principles and inclusiveness but which use violence and repression to remain in power. That, in turn, creates radicalization and still more violence.

The status quo has to change for the Arab regimes throughout the region that use Israel as a foil every time things get tough for those regimes domestically. They set up proxy armies to attack Israel; use the Palestinians as a crutch; and callously disregard human rights whenever it suits them, but gin up controversies with Israel at a moment's notice.

Moreover, it's rather rich that the Lebanese and Syrians are complaining about Israel's use of force to defend its borders all while Syria's Bashar al Assad continues the violent crackdown against opposition protesters - detaining more than 10,000 people and killing nearly 1,000. Syrian army forces have repeatedly opened fire on civilians, and Syrians are fleeing to Lebanon to avoid the violence:

Hizbullah's Hassan Nasrallah once again predicts that Israel will be destroyed and overwhelmed; he further predicts a day when Palestinian right of return will be fulfilled. That's not a call for a 2-state solution by any stretch; and that view is shared by Iran (which has been busy cracking down against its own opposition leaders for more than a year now).